St Paul, MN – On a cold and rainy April 10, several dozen people joined a Minneapolis-Saint Paul peace vigil to speak out against the danger of a new Korean war.

Every Wednesday, a peace vigil is held on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Due to the urgent situation in Korea, the organizers of the vigil designated April 10 as a day to focus on the crisis with an anti-war response.

Participants held signs as busy rush hour traffic went by. Many people waved and honked their car horns in support of the anti-war message.

Signs carried by participants included slogans such as: “No new Korean War,” No U.S. war in Korea,” and “Stop war games in Korea,” referring to the ongoing war games conducted by the U.S. and south Korea. Another sign read, “Say no to war – let DPRK live.” DPRK is the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the name of the northern Korean state.

Women Against Military Madness End War Committee and the Twin Cities Peace Campaign organize the weekly vigil.

On short notice, several other organizations signed on to the call for the April 10 vigil to respond to the Korea crisis and helped publicize the event. Groups endorsing the event included Anti-War Committee, Emergency Committee to Stop U.S. War in Korea, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and Veterans for Peace.

A statement issued by organizers says in part, “The Korean peninsula is at a flash point. U.S. war games, including sending nuclear bombers on a mission simulating the bombing of North Korea, only serve to bring Korea to the brink of a new war. We call for an end to the U.S. war games, for the U.S. to make a peace treaty to end the Korean War, and for an end to the sanctions on North Korea.”

At the end of the vigil participants gathered to hear brief remarks from organizers.

Chris Getowicz of the University of Minnesota chapter of Students for a Democratic Society said, “The government and the media in the U.S. continue to beat the war drums of agitation on the Korean peninsula. The government and media are building and maintaining the myth of North Korean hostility, when it is in fact the U.S. military presence that has maintained a divided Korean peninsula for 60 years. It is U.S. imperialism that has provoked hostilities on the Korean peninsula and we must challenge the notion that anyone other than the U.S. is maintaining a militarized and divided Korea.”

#StPaulMinnesota #StPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #Korea #DPRK #Peace

St. Paul, MN – On March 1, people of conscience gathered here during rush hour at a busy Saint Paul intersection, to show solidarity with hunger striking Palestinian political prisoners and to demand justice for Arafat Jaradat, who died Feb. 23 as a result of being tortured by Israeli security. Many passing cars honked in support of the protest.

Over 4000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails launched hunger-strike action on Feb.24 to protest the death of 30-year old Arafat Jaradat. He was detained for throwing stones at an Israeli soldier. While detained, he was tortured to death, sustaining six broken bones in his spine, arms and legs; his lips lacerated; his face badly bruised.

Sabry Wazwaz of the Anti-War Committee said, “I am disgusted that the media in the U.S. never reports the murdering of Palestinian prisoners by Israel. Also Israel detains the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for long periods of time – months and sometimes years – without any charges. This is all against international law and inhumane. Israel has one of the worst human rights records of any country in the world and yet it receives billions of American tax dollars in aid every year.”

At the same time, the lives of several other Palestinian prisoners are in danger, as they have carried on a hunger strike for months, to protest their inhumane and illegal detainment in Israeli prisons. Samer Issawi has been on strike for nearly 220 days.

Issawi has detained by Israeli authorities without any charge whatsoever. He had been released from prison in October 2011 as a part of the Shalit prisoner swap, but was detained again without charge on July 7, 2012, and has been refusing food since August 2012 to protest his detention. He is in critical condition, losing his vision, vomiting blood and lapsing in and out of consciousness.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are striking in solidarity with the long term hunger strikers, and the prisoners’ actions have set off a wave of demonstrations in Palestine and around the world, protesting Israel’s unjust treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

Sophia Hansen-Day, a student and Macalester College said, “I stand in solidarity with the courageous Palestinian hunger strikers. The daring action taken by Samer Issawi, Ayman Sharawna, Tarek Qaadan, Jafar Ezzeldeen and countless others speaks to the deep desire for justice and self-determination among the Palestinian people. As a U.S. citizen complicit in Israeli state violence, I protest today to demand all Palestinian prisoners are released immediately!”

The vigil for Palestine is held every week at the intersection of Summit and Snelling Avenues, sponsored in part by the WAMM Middle East Committee. This week’s special call for solidarity with Palestinian prisoners was sponsored by the Anti-War Committee.

#StPaulMinnesota #StPaulMN #Palestine #HungerStrike #SamerIssawi #MiddleEast

St Paul, MN – Minnesota’s Governor Mark Dayton got an earful from members of the Welfare Rights Committee, Feb. 6, when he entered the House chambers in the Capitol building to deliver his State of the State address.

Members of the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) told Dayton that this is the year to raise the grants for people on public assistance. Dayton did not include a grant increase in his budget proposal. The grants have not gone up since 1986.

The WRC legislation to double the welfare grants will be introduced this week.

#StPaulMinnesota #StPaulMN #PoorPeoplesMovements #MarkDayton #MinnesotaWelfareRightsCommittee

Protesters carried signs reading “Kids can't eat footballs”, “No tax dollars for stadiums” and “We need housing, not stadiums.”

Welfare Rights Committee member Darnella Wade stated, “They [the Minnesota legislature] cut my wages for being a personal care attendant and now they want to use our tax dollars to build a new stadium? That's a crying shame.”

People are mobilizing for the next hearing, on financing proposals for the stadium, scheduled for Dec. 6.

#StPaulMinnesota #StPaulMN #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #WelfareRightsCommittee #EconomicCrisis #Stadium #TaxpayerRipoff